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Humane Society Brings Free Trainings To Animal Welfare Professionals In Kansas

humanesociety.org

Animal welfare workers across Kansas have been receiving free training this week from the national Humane Society.

Midge Grinstead, the head of the Humane Society of the U.S. for Kansas, has been leading the first round of training sessions in cities across the state, including Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City. The trainings, which have brought together shelters, rescues and law enforcement, are part of a three-year, $1 million program.

The goals are to expand local animal workers’ ability to respond to animal cruelty, strengthen state laws related to animal welfare and reduce euthanasia rates.

Grinstead says changing the way a community views animals can change the community itself.

"You’re changing your community, because we're all connected," she says.

Grinstead says shelters, rescues and law enforcement need to work together more than they typically have in the past. She points out that the relationship between Wichita Animal Services and the Kansas Humane Society, which share a campus, is unique.

"All of them are working hard to get on the same page and realize that one is not better than the other, and they're all there for the same reason," she says. "Let's work together with these animals and these families that need our help."

She says the trainings reflect new mindsets not just among animal welfare workers, but among the public as well.

"I think everything in animal welfare is changing. I think how you adopt out animals, how much shorter a time they're staying in facilities, and getting out much quicker." Grinstead says. "The animal issues are coming forward in that, people see it. They see the connection."

She says the the HSUS will be back in Wichita and Topeka in October for a training focused on cats.

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Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.